F2 layer response to geomagnetic disturbances in Eastern Asia under the low solar activity

In this paper, the peculiarities of ionospheric response to geomagnetic disturbances observed at the decay and minimum of solar activity (SA) in the period 2004–2007 are investigated with respect to different geomagnetic conditions. Data from ionospheric stations and results of total electron content (TEC) measurements made at the network of GPS ground-based receivers located within the latitude–longitude sector (20–70°N, 90–160°Е) are used in this study. Three groups of anomalous ionospheric response to geomagnetic disturbances have been observed during low solar activity. At daytime, the large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LSTIDs) could generally be related to the main phase of magnetic storm. Quasi-two-days wavelike disturbances (WLDs) have been also observed in the main phase independent of the geomagnetic storm intensity. Sharp electron density oscillations of short duration (OSD) occurred in the response to the onset of both main and recovery phases of the magnetic storm in the daytime at middle latitudes. A numerical model for ionosphere–plasmasphere coupling was used to interpret the occurrence of LS TIDs. Results showed that the LSTIDs might be associated with the unexpected lifting of F2 layer to the region with the lower recombination rate by reinforced meridional winds that produces the increase of the electron density in the F2 layer maximum.     

Spatio-temporal structure of the wave packets generated by the solar terminator

Using long-term (1998--2009) total electron content (TEC) measurements from the GPS global network including dense network of GPS sites in USA and Japan, we have obtained the first data regarding the spatio-temporal structure and the statistics of medium-scale traveling wave packets (MS TWPs) excited by the solar terminator (ST). Total amount of the detected TWPs exceeds 565,000. There is no correlation between TWPs occurrence and geomagnetic and solar activity. We found that the diurnal, seasonal and spectral MS TWPs characteristics are specified by the solar terminator (ST) dynamics. MS TWPs are the chains of narrow-band TEC oscillations with single packet’s duration of about 1–2 h and oscillation periods of 10–20 min. The total duration of chain is about 4–6 h. The MS TWPs spatial structure is characterized by a high degree of anisotropy and coherence at the distance of more than 10 wavelengths. Occurrence rate of daytime MS TWPs is high in winter and during equinoxes. Occurrence rate of nighttime MS TWPs has its peak in summer. These features are consistent with previous MS travelling ionosphere disturbance (TID) statistics obtained from 630-nm airglow imaging observations in Japan. In winter, MS TWPs in the northern hemisphere are observed 3–4 h after the morning ST passage. In summer, MS TWPs are detected 1.5–2 h before the evening ST appearance at the point of observations, but at the moment of the evening ST passage in the magneto-conjugate point. The obtained results are the first experimental evidence for the hypothesis of the ST-generated ion sound waves.     

Generation of secondary waves due to intensive large-scale AGW traveling

By using data from GPS receivers we detected huge-amplitude solitary large-scale traveling acoustic-gravity waves (LS AGW) which manifested themselves as perturbations of total electron content (TEC) of duration of about 40 min. Originated in the auroral area after significant alterations of geomagnetic field intensity during geomagnetic storms on 29–30 October 2003, LS disturbances propagated with a velocity about 1000–1200 m/s and caused generation of secondary small-scale (SS) waves with time period of 2–10 min. Such SS structure followed the solitary intensive AGW at a distance more than 4000 km. However, we observed such phenomenon only within the territory with high values of “vertical” TEC and steep gradients of TEC. Apparently, these conditions are necessary for generation of SS waves due to propagation of LS AGW.     

Ionospheric response to solar flares of C and M classes in January–February 2010

The ionospheric response to solar flares is analyzed for the case of the beginning of solar activity growth, when the background ionization of the ionosphere is still low enough. It is shown that the algorithms and methods of averaging variations and derivative of the total electron content (TEC) over the entire sunlit ionosphere almost always make it possible to identify the ionospheric response even to close in time weak solar flares of the C class. It is found that the response to a solar flare rather intense in the X-ray range can have almost no manifestations, which is caused by the fact that the flare does not reveal itself in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. A map of the TEC derivative over the Japan territory with an average resolution of ～18 km is drawn for the M6.4 flare (February 7, 2010). Before the flare maximum, the TEC derivatives are synchronously increasing over the entire Japan, while after the flare maximum the values of the TEC derivative vary not so synchronously, and local differences are seen.